Orban in Poland: The West Never Experienced Communism, So Can’t Understand Eastern Europe

WARSAW, Poland: Populist leader Viktor Orbán arrived in Poland Monday, his first foreign trip since being re-elected as Hungarian Prime Minister, where he spoke with his Polish counterpart on the migrant crisis and European Union funding.

Speaking after the talks with Orbán, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hit out at the EU over its plans to force migrant quotas on all member nations, remarking the move “hit the very foundations of national sovereignty… Here, in Poland, it’s we who decide who will come to Poland and who will not.”

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Despite their opposition to having migration policy dictated from the European Union, Orbán insisted after the meeting that the nations were not hard-hearted.

The Associated Press reports the Hungarian leader’s remarks: “We also have hearts, we do not have stones instead of hearts. We are a Christian people. We know what commitments are, what it means to help. But we cannot help anyone if we destroy our country in the meantime.”

Speaking to Polish PM Morawiecki, the two leaders agreed that Eastern and Central European nations had a special perspective on political and social matters because they had endured occupation by Communism during the 20th century.

Because of this, the behaviour of these countries can be difficult to understand for Western European politicians, they said in remarks reported by Polish broadsheet Rzeczpospolita.

The new tranche of European Union funds paid to member states will come with specific requirements, for the first time, that recipients conform to the cultural and political expectations of their masters in Brussels — a rule change that has been widely seen as specifically targeted at Poland and Hungary.

The two nations have bucked the European trend in particular by refusing to accept forced resettlement of migrants, a move which has enraged globalist leaders at the heart of the Union.

Neither leader made specific comment on the funding arrangement after their meeting but said they wished to preserve EU subsidies of agriculture after the United Kingdom departs the Union in 2019, reports Radio Poland.

Orbán told press that money sent to Eastern Europe by richer states through the Union was not merely money thrown away — that it helped develop new markets and was ultimately spent buying goods and services from richer EU member states. “They make money on us. They do not give us this money,” he said.

The Warsaw visit is Orban’s first after his recent re-election as Hungary’s Prime Minister, his third consecutive term and fourth in total.